Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) is a
constituency created in 1885 and represented in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
of the
UK Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
by one
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP).
Tonia Antoniazzi
Antonia Louise Antoniazzi (born 5 October 1971) is a Welsh Labour Party politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gower at the 2017 general election.
Early life
Antoniazzi was born and raised in Llanelli by a Welsh mo ...
of the
Labour Party became its MP after winning it from a
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
in the
2017 UK general election. Her party had previously represented the seat from 1909 until 2015.
Overview
The constituency was created in 1885 and has had relatively widely varied boundaries. Before 2015 it had elected
Labour MPs since 1906, sharing the longest single-party representation with
Normanton and
Makerfield
Makerfield is an area in North West England. It is now split between the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, and the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside, both within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire.
Pla ...
. It holds approximately a third of the electorate of the city and county of
Swansea, the rest of which is
Swansea West and
Swansea East.
Boundaries
1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Swansea, and the Sessional Divisions of Gower, Pontardawe, and Swansea.
1918–1950: The Urban District of Oystermouth, and the Rural Districts of Gower and Swansea.
1950–1983: The Urban District of Llwchwr, and the Rural Districts of Gower and Pontardawe.
1983–2010: The City of Swansea wards of Bishopston, Fairwood, Gower, Newton, Oystermouth, Penclawdd, Pennard, and West Cross, and the Borough of Lliw Valley wards of Clydach, Dulais East, Gorseinon Central, Gorseinon East, Gowerton East, Gowerton West, Graigfelin, Kingsbridge, Llangyfelach, Lower Loughor, Mawr, Penllergaer, Penyrheol, Pontardulais, Tal-y-bont, Upper Loughor, and Vardre.
2010–present: The
Swansea County electoral divisions of Bishopston, Clydach, Fairwood, Gorseinon, Gower, Gowerton, Kingsbridge, Llangyfelach, Lower Loughor, Mawr, Newton, Oystermouth, Penclawdd, Penllergaer, Pennard, Penyrheol, Pontardulais, Upper Loughor, and West Cross.
The constituency encompasses most of the old
Lordship of Gower
Gower was an ancient marcher lordship of Deheubarth in South Wales.
Creation of Lordship
Prior to the Norman invasion, the district was the commote of Gŵyr, a part of Cantref Eginawc, within the realm of Deheubarth. Over the preceding century, ...
(less the city of Swansea) and covers the inner
Gower Peninsula
Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...
and outer Gower areas including Clydach, Gowerton, Gorseinon, Felindre and Garnswllt.
History
Liberals and Labour 1885–1918
The first years, seeing more heavy industrial make-up than today, represented a struggle between the
Liberals and those who favoured direct labour representation. Although its new electors in 1885 were predominantly the
miners
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...
and
tinplaters of the
Swansea Valley
The Swansea Valley ( cy, Cwm Tawe) is one of the South Wales Valleys. It is the valley from the Brecon Beacons National Park to the sea at Swansea of the River Tawe in Wales. Administration of the area is divided between the City and County of Sw ...
, the new MP was
Frank Ash Yeo, a local colliery owner and clearly an upper-class figure. In 1885 he comfortably defeated Henry Nathaniel Miers of
Ynyspenllwch in the Swansea Valley, a coal owner, tinplate manufacturer and landowner.
On Yeo's death in 1888, representatives of the
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
s in the constituency overturned the Liberal association's choice of
Sir Horace Davey and ensured the selection of David Randell as candidate. Randell was a
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
solicitor who specialised in trade union litigation and his victory, albeit with a reduced majority over
John Dillwyn Llewellyn, formed the basis of later claims that Gower was a 'labour' seat.
Modern history
Since
1945
1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat.
Events
Below, ...
, Gower has been a mostly reliable seat for the Labour Party, returning Labour's candidate except in two elections; in the
1983 Conservative landslide, in which it was won by just 1,205 votes, and in
2010, where it was held by 2,683 votes. However, unlike many Welsh valley seats, which have given commanding majorities to Labour, Gower has not seen a majority of over 10,000 votes or 20% of the vote for the Labour candidate in any election (with the exception of
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
) since 1979. In
2015, incumbent MP
Martin Caton stood down, and the new Labour candidate Liz Evans was defeated by the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Byron Davies
Henry Byron Davies, Baron Davies of Gower (born 4 September 1952) is a Conservative Party politician and life peer. He has been serving as a Lord in Waiting since September 2022.
Early life and career
Byron Davies was born in Port Eynon, Gower ...
by 27 votes, less than 0.1% of votes cast, which made it the most marginal Conservative seat going into the next election. Davies' victory brought 105 consecutive years of Labour representation to an end, but Labour won the seat back in the
2017 general election with a majority of 3,269, slightly larger than Caton's final majority in 2010.
Members of Parliament
Elections
Elections in the 19th Century
Elections in the 1880s
Elections in the 1890s
Elections in the 20th Century
Elections in the 1900s
![John Williams 1905](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/John_Williams_1905.JPG)
]
Elections in the 1910s
General Election 1914–15:
A General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place, and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected:
*Labour:
John Williams (Gower MP), John Williams
*Liberal:
*Unionist: Peter D Thomas
[Yorkshire Evening Post 2 May 1914]
Elections in the 1920s
Elections in the 1930s
Election in the 1940s
Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 21st Century
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 2010s
Of the 57 rejected ballots:
*40 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for.
[
*17 voted for more than one candidate.][
Of the 122 rejected ballots:
*90 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for.][
*32 voted for more than one candidate.][
]
See also
*
map
of Glamorganshire in 1885, showing its new divisions.
* Gower (Senedd constituency)
, constituency_type = Senedd county constituency
, parl_name=Senedd, image =
, caption = Gower shown as one of the 40 Senedd constituencies
, year = 1999
, parts_label = Electoral region
, par ...
* List of parliamentary constituencies in West Glamorgan
The preserved county of West Glamorgan is divided into five parliamentary constituencies – two borough constituencies and three county constituencies.
Constituencies
The current boundaries have been effective since the 2007 National Assembly ...
* List of parliamentary constituencies in Wales
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Politics Resources
(Election results from 1922 onwards)
(Election results from 1955 onwards)
2017 Election
House of Commons Library 2017 Election report
A Vision Of Britain Through Time
(Constituency elector numbers)
{{Authority control
Parliamentary constituencies in South Wales
Politics of Swansea
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885
Gower Peninsula